Rating: 
Summary: French
Review: Only the French need a girl to lead their army. That is probably why they're too scared to join the U.S., Britain, Australia and a few other countries in Iraq. The battle scenes don't even compare to Braveheart and there is too much religious nonsense and her talking to some guy who deosn't even exist.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't Represent Jean d'Arc
Review: I have read like three books on Joan of Arc and I have seen the mini-series on NBC, starring LeeLee Sobieski (I love you!). Everything I have seen or read about Joan of Arc, Jean d'Arc, was better than The Messenger. Joan was a kind, wonderful person but this movie made her look like a maniac that should be put away. Though I have to say Milla Jovovich played a wonderful crazy person. Joan's visions weren't even correct. In the movie she saw some man that looked like Jesus, while in life she saw Saints, such as St. Catherine. The war scenes were gruesome, but I liked them; they were realistic. Another thing wrong was how Joan found her sword. She didn't find it in a meadow, as if someone dropped it there and she found it. Her voices told her that the sword was in St.Catherine's temple around the alter, so she sent some of her men to the temple and they found it buried by the alter just as she said. No one else knew it was there before. I was so upset after watching this movie, because it didn't show the true Joan of Arc. I would recomend reading Joan of Arc by Mark Twain to find the real Joan of Arc.
Rating: 
Summary: The Amphetamine Maid
Review: Not only is Joan of Arc presented as a nut in this film, she's clearly tripping on speed: Jumping out of her skin, screaming her head off and delivering banal lines with halting, eye-bugging intensity. It's hard to believe that even the most religiously medieval French soldier would give this loon the time of day, let alone follow her into battle. Mon Dieu! Run awaaaaaayy. . . But I'll say this for the director, he's consistent. It's fast paced all the way through, what with boulders a la 'Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom ' getting hurled at the troops along with other JamesBondian gizmos making for cool technogore. Which, alongside Joan's motivation in this script ( Her sister's been raped by the posse of --er I mean the Brits) turns it all into an enjoyable comic book Western revengefest. It's 'The Quick and the Dead' minus gunslingers, set in 1429. Plus the scenes of her schizoid 'visions' are gorgeously photographed. But as far as the real Joan of Arc, the only major historical figure whose life and thought has come down to us through sworn court testimony---Oh well, in the first place she's had writers of genius like Shaw and Twain to balance this dramatization, and in the second place, as long as we're making films about protagonists who hear voices, wild battle scenes and trials for heresy it could have been much worse. How about: " Socrates, Herald of Hades! " (sigh)
Rating:
Summary: challenge a legend?
Review: I admit to seeing the made-for-television version of Joan of Arc before viewing this version. If it makes a difference, I also read Mark Twain's "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc" that previous weekend, regardless of my dislike of Twain's writing style. I admit to thinking of this logical, honest, and energetic historical figure as one of the most fascinating in history. So, after viewing the scewed version called "The Messenger" I am perhaps too biased to speak.
The Joan portrayed in "The Messanger" comes off as tempermental, insecure, and ultimately insane. This is not the Joan that is recorded in history as a kind and forgiving peasant who touched the hearts of thousands by loving them, and who never spoke ill of anyone. This is not the Joan that led fifty intelligent judges in circles of words by answering calmly, consistently, and logically all answers that were intended to lead her to the stake. This is not the Joan who claimed to hear the voices of saints who informed her of events long before they happen. No, this "messenger", in the midst of a cinematic mess, is a horrifying psychotic who doesnot possess the conviction that would make an army wake up let alone fight an imposible war.
I did not like this movie. I leave you to make your own opinion, but consider that Joan of Arc was a seventeen-year-old peasant who claimed to hear heavenly voices, created a vast army and battle tactics that won back much of France, and was burned at the stake as a heretic before being declared a Saint. There are many interptretations of this historical figure, and although I am perhaps biased by my previous exposures, I don't feel that "the messenger" should be one of them.
Rating: 
Summary: my opinion
Review: i'm sorry if my opinion is similar with others because i don't have time to read them i can not read English very well so reading them would take me too much time. (i don't do this [giving stars] since now) i've changed my opinion to this movie. There is someone who has their own belief and way to do things they think they can and must do. All other powerful people doubt and try to stop her but also expect her to do something different, useful and helpful. So it's really a hard work. I don't know why LucBesson think maybe a woman can do this work well, in this circomstances she have to pay high price at last. Maybe He's found a man has always two selves and both are strong. When the second(or actully the first) self let a woman getting pregnant, he's let himself get in troble, he can not just live with the sea and dolphins anymore. Other people maybe are just other people but your child is a part of you and if you choose not to care them, you will get guilty. So to a man other people have the ability to increase his sin. But to a woman, if she's lucky enough if she doesn't need to do things for her country if she's not living in India and some places, she has a chance to be and develop herself all the time. And she can choose to love God. In all places i ever saw God is a He. It's a good news for a woman. The best thing is "he" doesn't tempt you to increase your sin, so he's perfect and good for you. When we can just be ourselves we get some kind of power gradually. We can help ourselves and try to help other people. But we have to be modest to God, otherwise we will loss our powers. I basically like Milla Jovovich and her acting here very much, but it looks sometimes she wants some second level things from God and other people and forgets she deserves (always of course) the first level things, maybe she doesn't feel he is God but feel he is DH sometimes. We know what LB wants to express and it's enough. In The Fifth Element she's just born and now she has her belief and ability, but, still, it's a very difficult road if she don't have BW to help her. But we can not find a perfect man like BW in this world. So we actually need a stronger belief of God, then he will get along with you anytime.
Rating:
Summary: INCREDIBLE BUT TRUE ! THIS MOVIE IS ALMOST FRENCH !
Review: I'm french and i've seen this movie with french language in zone 2 ! But without ten additionnal minutes Mister Luc Besson, a frenchie as much as me do not want make a complete movie for my country ! Is it normal ? No ! Sure ! In the same movie LEON whitch he as created ! Mister Luc BESSON don't like the Fenchmen MOVIES ? OUTLANDISH !!!
Rating:
Summary: One dimensional "movie"
Review: There is a movement of late for the French to ATTEMPT to do (many) things a la Amerique, especially in movies by trying to capture the grande epic style of film that America does so well. Although Besson's film, "Le femme Nikita," is one of my top five favorites, he failed here; and I fail to call myself his fan. Here are the problems:
La pucelle was NEVER raped.
Jehanne was compassionate towards English soldiers, peasants, etc
She was not insane, schizoid, or mentally ill in any way.
She was very eloquent and could debate with the most learned men.
The dialogue represents the 20th C.
Weapons are wrong.
Technical work is second-rate.
Even the hair colour was wrong (she had black hair). Besson uses La Pucelle as a vehicle for self-aggrandizement, and it was a poor attempt at that.
Rating:
Summary: $50 Million Arthouse Film
Review: "The Messenger" may be my all-time favorite film. It got terrible reviews in the U.S., and was poorly received by the American public. It garnered rave reviews in France, the newspaper Liberation calling it Luc Besson's finest film. This despite its portrayal of an iconic figure in French history as a schizophrenic unguided missile. And apparently in Iceland it's the number 7 bestseller, according to Amazon.com So what gives? First, this is not a religious picture. If you want the life of a saint, do not see this film. If you want a conventional take on the story of Joan of Arc, do not see this film. There have been plenty of other movies made about the Maid of Orleans that tell the conventional story of the hero / saint. Besson's film takes a secular, intensely psychological approach. He treats Jeanne as tragic figure. She is manic, driven, restless, profoundly unhappy. A fascinating character. She is an outsider; her companions in arms come to have tremendous respect for her, they are devoted to her, but they do not understand her. She does not understand herself. And therin lies the tragedy. This film is unconventional in its treatment of an overly-conventionalized subject. The dialogue is modern, there is no attempt to make it sound like ye olde medieval speech. Dustin Hoffman, appearing in the last part of the movie, plays her consicence, her Freudian confessor. Guilt and confession play a major part in this film. It is not the story of a plaster saint.
Rating:
Summary: An Uninspired Epic...
Review: "The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc" is nothing more than a by-the-numbers film created with liberal use of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Directing the Medeival Epic." I have been vastly entertained by director Luc Besson's work in the past, but this film is a plodding, gore-drenched nod toward Mel Gibson's vastly superior "Braveheart." "The Messenger" completely lacks all of the finer emotions that make an epic story compelling, despite the true nature of the people and some of the events. "The Messenger" also revels in its violence and grit, rather than trying to create something realistic (and more convincing). Milla Jovovich turns in an annoying performance as the shrieking saint, who does not inspire her troops so much as berate them in her holier-than-thou manner. The film's topics are interesting (was Joan really a saint who could speak to God, or was she just insane and driven by rage?), but the execution is poor. On top of this, the scripting and dialogue is just plain bad. If you want an epic, I suggest looking elsewhere. Maybe somebody out there will make a better picture about this fascinating historic figure.
Rating:
Summary: Ridiculous on several levels
Review: The Messenger, The Story of Joan of Arc would be better served if it didn't include it's subheading. The movie begins with Joan as a little girl in the French town of Doremey. She comes from a loving family and is generally happy and normal except for one thing. She tells her priest she hears voices. Her Priest, initally concerned with this confession, has his fear besiged when she tells him that her voices tell her to do good, and to be the best she can. To this he offers a fatherly voice and tells her, "then it sounds like you should listen to them, they offer you good advice."
Joan is off playing in a feild when she finds a sword. She begins playing with it when she, again is taken by her visions. She runs home to find that her home has been attacked by the English. Her sister stashes her in the closet to hide, as English soldiers break into their home, where they then procede to murder and rape her sister, while she watches in horror from the closet.
It is the assertion, of the direcor Luc Besson, that Joan of Arc was inspired to raise the French army in pursuit of revenge. That this event in her childhood, pushed an unstable girl over the edge, and all this might have something to it, except for one thing. It never happened.
Joan's sister was not raped and murdered when she was a child. Just so were clear this is not a matter of historical interpretation. Joan didn't even have a sister named Catherine. So in essence the entire movie is based on a historical lie.
This time around Milla Jovovich is playing the title role of Joan of Arc, and proves why you shouldn't cast some of history's most important figures from Mayballine commercials. Jovovich is all wide eyed confusion here, as she bites her fingernails and talks to herself, she rants, she raves she wins battles seemingly by accident, and wins the faith of a nation for God knows what reason.
Jovovich doesn't have the charisma to keep us interested for two hours, let alone the charisma to convince a king to give her an entire army. Her acting style fits nicely though with the movie's over stylized and over produced narrative. Luc Besson (Direcor of The Fifth Element) has never been strong with characterizations, and for the most part probably shouldn't of attempted an intepretation of one of the most complicated characters the world has ever known.
Besson conviently leaves out historical details to serve his own purpose, and creates events which will greater stabalize his very limited understanding of Joan of Arc. That she indeed wasn't a messenger of God, but quite simply a frickin' loon. As a historical interpretation this movie is reprehensible, as far entertainment goes, the film initially delievers but it's disregard of subtlety quickly grows tiresome and will only inspire you to rent more well done historical drama that isn't quite so blasphemous when it concerns it's subject matter. Braveheart anyone?
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